


louder than sirens, louder than bells

by shortitude



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Earth Skills, F/M, Focus on The 100, Found Family Feels, Gen, Life on the Ground series, Minor/Secondary Ships Included In Notes, Non-descript timeline, Romance in small doses, Worldbuilding, non-linear timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-21 02:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4810622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortitude/pseuds/shortitude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>collection of drabbles inspired by tumblr prompts; braven & the others, after season 2. (healing, moving on, and very likely making out.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. life on the ground

**Author's Note:**

> a few notes of consequence: inspired by **semele** 's "life on the ground" prompts. i'm going to aim to write one drabble or smallfic for each of them. many of them will focus, mostly, on bellamy&raven as a romantic couple. i might also write from the point of view of other characters; minor ships and secondary ships will get mentioned in the chapter notes. 
> 
> **prompts 1-4** : mentions of Linctavia, suggestions of Minty and past Wicken (which shall not be named).

**cold**

It's a little bit anticlimatic, if you consider it, but in the end it might just be nature the one who lands the killing blow. Earth kills, and all that, right? A month has barely passed since they left the ruins of Mount Weather behind them, together with the wreckage of their souls, when the weather changes drastically. It's when it becomes clear that everyone who thought they'd had it rough on the ground so far has been wrong. 

It's when they let Raven Reyes fight her way out of the medical bay (if the barely insulated room can be called that) so she can start working on the heating system that's in the Ark remains they live in now.

It's when Bellamy catches a cold. The first few days, it's just some sniffles and a runny nose, but given that on the Ark conditions which allowed for the development of the common cold had been eliminated, it's still new. It's not until he starts coughing, each cough rattling in his chest and feeling like death, that he starts becoming aware that it might be bad. 

On the back of his suffering, though, everyone learns a lesson about wearing protective clothing; those handy with sewing come up with a way for everyone to have some sort of scarf. 

He makes two. The first one, for Octavia, but that's a given because they still take care of each other. The other one, for Raven, because he hasn't seen enough people taking care of her, or trying to, or doing it well enough. Which, he understands; she has become more abrassive since Mount Weather, pushing all her kindness and softness aside and pushing everyone else away as well. If she doesn't chase people away, she flinches from them trying to get close; they've learned to give her a very wide berth. 

It doesn't strike him as odd, that he sacrifices one of his only shirts to make two cowls, one for O and one for Raven, or that he does it in his time off duties, stiffling his coughs and nearly driving himself to bad sight from squinting in the barely lit room he shares with Nate and Monty. He doesn't think of making anyone else scarves, either, and it's not weird. His people can take care of themselves, and he has no more spare shirts left. 

When he takes the cowl to Raven, she's elbow deep in some sort of generator engine or whatever (he doesn't pretend to understand the things that come naturally to him); he has to clear his throat to catch her attention, and tries not to let worry seep in at the sight of her pale skin. Is she already sick? Is anyone else? (Far at the back of his head, he wonders if Clarke would've warned them against the weather like a worrying mother, or if wherever she is now she is also coughing her lungs out. He can't tell anymore what the bitter taste on his tongue is for.) Raven flinches when she gets up from her crouch, and he realizes it has nothing to do with having caught a cold. 

She's still working through her injuries, or in spite of them, because she's stubborn and hates admitting she is weak. (Maybe she heard too many of Clarke's speeches about weakness while he was crawling through Mount Weather. Or maybe it's just Raven, working through the pain because she knows shit needs to get done.)

To their credit, they manage to have the exchange without any words. He shows her the cowl, narrows his eyes at her when he feels she's about to protest, and they have this staredown stretch out over almost a minute. Finally, she nods once, and waves with grease-stained hands at him. He puts it on for her, careful not to breathe any of his germs near her, because the last thing she needs is a fucking cold, and careful not to comment on the way her skin suddenly recovers some colour, especially in her cheeks. Then she nudges impatiently towards the generator, _I'm busy_ and he takes his leave to go check on the rest of their people. 

That evening, he finds a small contraption on his bed; it's a lantern, the kind you tie around your head, the kind that makes sewing and cleaning his guns and writing in the dim light of autumn easier. This too, is an exchange they have without words. 

**rain**

Working on a garden that yields food actually does Monty good. It's a calming, healing process; the long hours of work and being elbow deep in dirt isn't an unknown thing to him, he did ace the Botany part of Earth Skills on the Ark. Camp Jaha gets the promise of better food for the upcoming year, in spite of the first crop being grown from artificially frozen seeds brought down from the Ark, and he has something to do that creates life instead of taking it. 

If he's allocated a small square of land, out in the woods, to the growth of a certain plant that acts as a natural painkiller, well; nobody's the wiser, and nobody should be surprised. (It doesn't surprise him that Jasper doesn't suddenly pop up behind him one day to remind him to snip the buds so it grows stuffier, but then again. The only level of comfort he takes from this is that at least Jasper hasn't snitched.)

When they gave these classes on crops and vegetable gardens on the Ark, all they had to deal with was artificial irrigation. It's why, when the downpour starts, he's one of the few who rushes out of the Ark and runs behind it to check on the garden, maybe cover it up with tarpoline to avoid them getting flooded.

It's shocking to run into people already there, because this late at night he expects only the night shift guards are awake, and they don't care for gardening. But it's by pure miracle he doesn't scramble in loudly. 

So, the two never pull away from each other. 

Monty doesn't know what's more surprising now, the fact that the tarpoline's already been pulled over the large metal bars that make up a low greenhouse-like construction, or the fact that Bellamy and Raven are glued to each other at the lips, in pouring rain. You'd think for a guy who just got to live the horrors of a common cold on his own skin, Bellamy'd be more cautious, but the air around them seems to spark and sizzle anyway; it almost makes Monty envious. 

They break the kiss, and he jumps to hide behind the corner of the Ark, but still peeks from behind them to catch them sharing a smile before going at it again. No, screw it, he's definitely a little jealous. He doubts he's ever been kissed like that; from the groan Raven lets out and the way her fingers twist in Bellamy's wet hair, he doubts _she's_ ever been kissed like that either. 

But now, the voyeur's dilemma: his garden is safe, and he has just ran into the biggest piece of gossip in Camp Jaha, and he's still staring. Which he should stop. Before he stops being able to make eye contact with Bellamy; that'd make the number of roommates he gets flustered around two. 

Like some sort of devil summoned by thought alone, Nate's voice is suddenly behind him, an amused whisper of, "It's about fucking time." 

Turns out, Monty can still yelp like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Above them, a thunderclap barely covers his sound 

 

**heat**

They go exploring. It's uncommissioned, and they're likely to get into trouble, but now that news has finally spread across the camp of their relationship, a day off and away from everyone's eyes is what they both need. It's not like they've been keeping it a secret, what with Bellamy often falling asleep in her workshop instead of his shared room; it's just shocking that it's taken this long for the news to spread. 

Today's what feels like the last hot day of the year, and happens to be the first day off they share. Raven takes a radio with her, just in case, but swears up and down that she's not going back unless the camp's on fire; they can manage everything without her for a while, and without him. So, they explore. 

There's a small pond, a little higher up in the mountain, where nature hasn't allowed freakish mutated animals to appear yet. He checks, first with a large stick and then with the electromagnetic bomb she's packed up for the trip. ("You never know, okay," she grouses, shoving at his shoulder when he keeps smirking. "You do love your explosions," he says, and then throws it into the water.) Once it stops being dangerous, they strip. 

It could be romantic, sure, stripping each other off slowly, but Raven chooses to race through the clothes from the waist up, and mutter in frustration while she takes off her brace, instead. 

But water, like zero-g, lets you float and doesn't remind you of legs that don't work anymore. He does his best to stick close to her without stressing her out, and to not glance down at the way water clings to the cleavage above her bra, or lower against her stomach. It's Raven who pulls him closer first, with a murmured "It's cold." He helps her wrap her legs around him in the deep water, and runs her hands along her skin until she warms up. But it's in the touch of her mouth, that he finally finds the warmth he's been searching for.

 

**snow**

The first time snow falls, they're ready. Lincoln has told them about the way it gets so cold, the way nature will be reborn from underneath it, they things they could do if they want to live through it without consequences. He can't predict the way they react to the actual thing, however, and neither can Octavia. 

By now, the rejection and betrayal she's felt towards Indra has managed to melt away. She's still intent on making sure nobody suffers for the wrong and selfish choices of their leaders again, but that's a secret she holds close to her heart, one she hasn't even told Bellamy. (Partly because, from all she's seen, he's been first in line for that suffering, his whole life.) 

But the snow falls, as piles and piles up, and every young person who ever promised to be stronger, more stubborn, braver to themselves, in secret, drop their armour at once. Camp Jaha sees its first snowballs fight, and it's a fierce one; guerrilla tactics are developped, relationships are tested, and for once it's laughter that spreads through the empty training fields, not fighting cries. 

When it's over, they all build a fire and sit around it telling stories, huddling up together to get warm and dry again, hopefully. The snowing has stopped, and the fire blazes high even when darkness falls. The guards are, blissfully, quiet about what just happened. 

She finds herself laughing again, at the memory of each snowball that connected with a shoulder or a face, of each scream for bloody revenge. These people, with whom she'd once believed she had nothing in common, who she once thought knew nothing of real suffering and loss and being locked up in a tiny little hidey-hole, these people of _hers_ , they're brave. They make Octavia proud. 

She glances at each of them, and when she remembers what Lexa said, _love is weakness_ , she thinks _No. Not for us._

They are _skaikru_ ; love is the sharp edge of their knives.


	2. time off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ravenbells asked: Shoulder kiss for Ravenbell. And while you're at it, fingertips kiss as well

She’s pretending to be asleep. That’s the truth of it. There’s not a bone in her body that doesn’t ache with exhaustion, and she knows that if she tells him this he will insist on giving her a backrub, and they _know how that usually goes_. So she’s pretending to be asleep.

As if they’ve been together for years now, as if they’ve settled into that routine where she pretends to be asleep to get him off her back. 

Except it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all, because Raven, she _wants_  him on her back. His is a comfortable weight, a welcomed presence, a gift of a calmness he exudes. But she pretends to be asleep because she knows that it makes him want to linger in bed with as well.

See, Raven doesn’t let her guard down as easily anymore, so when she falls asleep in your bed with her back bare and exposed, with her whole body vulnerable, _that’s_  the gift. Bellamy knows this, or at least she thinks he’s interpreted some part of it, because ever since she’s started to sleep in his bed she’s noticed that he doesn’t like to get out of it until she’s awake. Capable of defending herself. (Capable of dragging him back.)

She knows there’s a schedule to everything they do now, and there’s no rest for the wicked, but this morning Raven puts her foot down. They’ve finished the last hut in Aventine last night, and she’s bone-deep tired, so he must be feeling worst. She is pretending to be asleep, because that’s how she gets him to stay in bed and rest a while longer. 

Except it doesn’t work forever. She feels him wake, she feels him watch her. She feels the way his fingertips trace down the length of her spine, circling around the scar left there by a bullet. She doesn’t feel his arousal until he shifts closer to her, his hips against her ass, but he doesn’t intend her to do anything about it (yet). What she feels, instead, are his lips on her shoulder and his fingers pushing her hair out of the way so he can kiss his way up to the nape of his neck. 

 _So yeah, sleep - screw it_. She turns around with a groan, because _dammit, Bellamy, let us have one day off_. She finds his smile and immediately covers it with her hand, only to have him grab her wrist so delicately and kiss her fingertips. 

“You wanna be lazy?” he asks, voice quiet from sleep. 

Raven relaxes all over. _Of course_  - like she ever needs to pretend with him. She just nods, and pulls him closer.


	3. no such thing as idle threats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "If you die, I'm gonna kill you."

“You don’t mean that.”

“No, I _do_. This is serious, Bellamy.” 

He gives her a very blank stare, and lowers his gaze to table. She can see the tension in his shoulders, and feel vindicated; _good, take me seriously_ , she thinks. A second later, Monty breaks the silence with a “F5″. 

Raven digs her fingers into Bellamy’s shoulder, just as he sighs out his defeat. “You sunk my battleship.” 

This is the last time she plays doubles with him, she thinks, before taking the rag and bar of soap from Miller. 

“Enjoy the dirty dishes, losers.” Oh sure, he’s so smug, but Monty basically won the game _for him_. (Just like Bellamy lost it for _them_.) 

“I’m going to put dynamite in your bed, Miller, I swear to god.”

“It’s already explosive enough in there as it is.” 


	4. please don't leave me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> buries: "Please don't leave me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the closest thing to s3 I've ever written, and I wrote it in January. (I forgot I wrote it???)

It’s inevitable, in the end. Abby tells her the surgery will be tomorrow, and adds in a very low voice, apologetic, that they’ve run out of anesthetic again. It’s her own damn fault, she knows; if she hadn’t been stubborn about this (terrified, if she hadn’t been terrified of another needle, another drill, another scalpel, another) maybe she could’ve taken up the Chancellor on her offer a month ago, when the pain in her leg had still been dull, and the meds from Mount Weather hadn’t run dry. 

Abby tells her that it’s okay to be scared, but Raven stops listening, because what does Abby really know about being scared of being in pain anyway? She tells Raven that she could bring a friend, and Raven leaves the tent because she’s somehow sure that the woman hopes the friend Raven will choose will be her daughter, finally giving them a chance to talk. Because, of course, it’s all about them, isn’t it?

He finds her in the rover late at night because the truth is, she can’t get down. If she tries to jump down she knows she’ll crumble, and if she crumbles then she’ll be rushed into surgery a day early, and she will be alone until someone finds her. She doesn’t feel alone when he finds her, but she doesn’t feel great about herself either. 

He makes her want to latch on, for starters. She fiddles with Finn’s pendant while he takes a seat in the passenger’s seat, and remembers that he’d found it for her on the way back from Mount Weather, and brought it over with a repaired string. 

She glances sideways at him and knows that he knows. It makes her want to laugh, of course he’d know; he’s become really good at showing them he cares. He’s become frighteningly good at showing _her_  he cares, and it’s not fair to notice that now when she is absolutely too late. 

( _She’s too good for you. But I’m not. I’m a terrible wreck, but I keep catching you looking at how to put the pieces back together and I hate that. Let me be a wreck, I let you be one._ ) 

The thing about this whole thing is that it feels inevitable. Like breaking up with Kyle had been inevitable from the moment he told her to get herself sorted out, like he’d forgotten all about how she’d buried her first love two days before. Like the surgery had been inevitable the moment the rubble had landed on her leg anyway. Like craving warmth and touch had been inevitable the moment it became out of her reach. 

“Plan to just stay here all night?” he asks, breaking the silence.

“Yep,” she manages, and looks out the window. In the rear-view mirror she almost sees him, almost amuses herself into thinking that he is concerned. Of course he’s concerned. 

He drops a parcel in her lap, and the scent tells her it’s dinner. She looks over at him, heart in her throat. 

( _You just push people away, don’t you? Avoids you getting hurt_.) 

“Please don’t leave me,” she whispers, and a second later he pulls her in a silent side-way hug. 

She’s never pushed away the ones who could hurt her the most. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is headcanon o'clock because we know that Bell and Raven are the bffs of this show.


	5. the naked man scheme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IN CASE LAST CHAPTER LEFT YOU NEEDING SOME RIDICULOUS SHIT, here.

Of all the things she expects to find when she steps into her new room, this is the last one. 

Back in Mount Weather there was one painting of a woman studying herself in a mirror, bed sheets carefully draped over her curvy body hiding just enough to make her look suggestive, not decadent. Bellamy has given it a try: he’s failed. 

Then again, she might be biased; she thinks it’s impossible for him not to look decadent with those shoulders, those hips, the freckles on his collarbones, the tension in his stomach, the look in his eyes, his stupid mouth. 

She pushes the door shut behind her wordlessly, _click_. 

“Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” she asks. A prank, maybe. A trick. A ‘I’m having the last laugh now’ sort of thing, coming three years late. Would he hold a grudge? He’s always given her the impression that he wouldn’t, not for that. 

( _Ever thought of that night?_  she’d asked him once, after a rough scouting mission, both of them drinking in the back of the rover. 

 _Yes_. He’d tipped back the contents of his glass very abruptly, and she’d been too busy looking up at the stars to notice the heat in his eyes. _A few times._ ) 

It would be appropriate, she thinks. He’s been acting more affectionate towards her lately, more open. Touched her more, his hand on the small of her back, on her shoulder, on the side of her neck this one time - left her breathless and dazed – and smiled more openly. He’s been replying to her bad jokes, instead of groaning and rolling his eyes. 

She hasn’t let herself hope. That’s a mistake, for Raven to hope. Every time she hopes for something, it blows up in her face.

So even though he’s naked in her bed, looking relaxed with his arms under his head and his gaze following her, she doesn’t hope. She expects it’s a trap. 

“Yes,” he answers. He waits. 

Eventually, she gets tired of waiting for him to get to the butt of the joke, and strides forward, defiant. If he plans on tricking her, she’ll show him. 

When she sits down, he sits up, and she thinks _Yep, here we go. Leave_. He kisses the nape of her neck instead, pushing her hair out of the way. 

If it turns out to be a trick or not, she figures she’ll find out at the end, when the other shoe drops. For now, she turns around and slant her mouth against his. 

(”I can’t believe the Naked Man worked,” he’ll say, later, cradling her in his arms. “Miller gets shotgun on the rover for a month.”) 


	6. algunas cosas se hacen esperar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt #1 on the **ravenbell kink meme** round 2: _shotgunning_ as a way to kickstart the ship. a very mellow post-s3 setting. things are as happy as they can be, shh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> contains mentions of recreational drug use so please be advised; it's just, cigaretts+monty=don't stay cigarettes for a long time, and if you think they wouldn't grow weed to help raven's pain then #that'smyseason4. vaguely references s3 from the point of view of someone who couldn't give a fuck about s3. i hope it was worth the wait, anon, and also i don't know why i used spanish in my title but it felt right

Raven doesn't have vices on the ground, because her mother took care of picking up all the vices while they were still both on the Ark; she has given drinking a try, but nowadays drinking reminds her of evenings spent talking to Gina and her kind smile and the way she'd listen and laugh whenever Raven would shit-talk someone (Wick especially, at the start). She has given sex as a vice a try too, long ago, before coming to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to fix her mood, or fix her, and it wasn't what she was searching for - release was good and all, but connection seemed unattainable then.   
  
What she hasn't given thought to as been smoking, for the lack of literally anything to smoke. But she is a mechanic, she boldly went out into the deep, dark and silent space to fix an unfixable station, and she has flown herself to the ground, all on her own, in her own pod.   
  
So it's not like she isn't familiar with reckless behaviour.   
  
When Bellamy comes back from a scouting mission with a packet of thinly rolled cigarettes he apparently traded off someone (or taken off someone, she doesn't care to ask anymore), it's Monty that sees the opportunity for some well-sought-for relaxation.   
  
The extra boost he adds to the cigarettes, which are now thicker because of the crushed up dry leaves, is supposed to get the smoker feeling relaxed. "It takes pain away too," Monty murmurs, while they're rolling the joints together, barely glancing up at Raven. She knows, anyway; she's sold, at least on trying them.   
  
So they form a circle, a couple of the Delinquents still interested, and Bellamy and her - they're not exactly Delinquents, they're stowaways in theory, the fierce and loyal kind - and they pass the joint around the circle.   
  
Harper starts giggling first, and it's been so long since Raven's heard that sound that she lets out a laugh of her own, in relief. Monty joins them, then Nate and Ryan, and they're soon laughing quietly (don't want the guards to hear) and hard enough that they're wiping tears from the corners of their eyes.   
  
She looks for Bellamy's reaction in the moment, and finds him stuck with the joint between his fingers, arms draped loosely over his knees and leaning forward, only instead of looking pensive and as brooding as ever, he looks at ease. He looks at her. He keeps looking at her, and there's a jolt in Raven's stomach, a flutter somewhere between her ribs, as he pushes himself upwards and shifts to sit closer to him.   
  
The joint is at its last drag, and it's a shame because Raven _is_ feeling a little better from it. But she's not making a thing out of this, she won't fall into a vice like her mother, so it'll be this one last drag and goodbye.   
  
Bellamy's thumb sweeping gently over the corner of her eye, where worry wrinkles have started to form (temporary as they may be), is what startles her out of her decision and makes her remember that he's the one who has the last drag. So her goodbye happened, she just didn't realize it.   
  
"You okay?" he asks her quietly, unaware perhaps of the attention they've drawn. Or maybe very aware; there's not a day that goes by without Bellamy Blake measuring his every step and move. That he is moving freely now, uncaring...what does that mean? What does it make her?   
  
"You should finish that or pass it along if you don't want it," she mutters, glancing once at the joint in his fingers, and once at his lips on the way up.   
  
He considers it. His hand moves slowly, fingers brushing down her jawline, the side of her neck, curling over the back of it. She is hotwires jammed together, scrambled up but working fine; right now, she knows what she wants. He seems to know, too, reading through the months of unspoken of glances and endless easy hugs, endless easy touches, incredibly easy to give support.   
  
"Come here," he murmurs, just for her, and takes the last drag. She leans in as he does, parts her lips as he does, and with her eyes half-closed she inhales the smoke that he breathes into her mouth. Exhales it through her nose, licks her lips to find them tasting sickly sweet, and finally sighs when he pulls her close and presses his lips against hers.   
  
She is static for a second, remembering with stark intensity how much this didn't work the last time, but he is gentler in this second first kiss, swipes his tongue along the seam of her lips and presses a soft kiss to her lower lip with such affection that she melts and stops thinking of the past mistakes. She grabs onto the front of his shirt, and kisses him back a little harder, licking past his lips and sighing when he touches his tongue to hers with something akin to a tease.   
  
There's a good kiss.   
  
When he breaks it, she moans softly in protest, and he pecks the corner of her mouth in apology. This way, she knows that they won't pretend like this one never happened again either.   
  
Of course, it's hard to think that there's a risk for that, when he takes her hand and pulls her up from her seat; hard to think that he doesn't care, when he guides them both into his quarters. It's difficult to pretend like he doesn't want her, hasn't wanted her, when he goes in to kiss her neck with more dedication and heat than the first time, making that one experience pale in comparison and seem perfunctory at best.   
  
It's not the weed that makes her feel like she's floating, it's Bellamy picking her up so he can set her down on his table, licking a lazy line up from her collarbone to her earlobe.   
  
There was a group of people that watched this entire thing unfold, she knows this. This moment, which in her weak moments Raven will think back on and call magical, was witnessed by others because the world doesn't revolve around just the two of them, despite her beliefs right now. It is widely different from the first time, a secret just the two of them shared; it feels like come morning, the whole camp can know and they won't give a fuck, because this will still happen.   
  
"Yeah it will," he tells her, and she startles to realize she said that out loud. Oh well. She can't help the grin, and he can't help leaning into her and kissing her again.   
  
After all this time, something feels right. "Finally."


End file.
